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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25546126">Bicycles &amp; Mochi</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/yappie/pseuds/yappie'>yappie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>One Piece</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - High School, F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 10:21:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>15,234</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25546126</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/yappie/pseuds/yappie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Stay in school, kids. It is the only time in your life where you can wreak all the havoc you want, and if you are smart about it, you can get away scot-free. Between bicycle thefts and gang fights, there's enough havoc to go around. Please, have some mochi, and try not to choke to death.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Trafalgar D. Water Law &amp; Original Character(s), Trafalgar D. Water Law/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Emma had her arm crossed, finger tapping furiously on her arm as she stood on the platform. She glared at the clock hanging from the ceiling at some distance away. <em>‘Any. Second. Now.’ </em></p><p>First day of the week, and she’s on her way to being late for school. Monday blues? Screw that. She’s seeing <em>red</em>.</p><p>
  <em>- 1 hour ago - </em>
</p><p>Emma eyed the television with half lidded eyes, still trying to blink the last bit of sleepiness away. She barely paid attention to the morning news, and absentmindedly scooped some yogurt from her bowl and shoved it into her mouth.</p><p>In the past month there’s been a lot of news going around about some series of bicycle thefts going on in the city. The police have been going around putting up posters everywhere about how people should take care of their bicycles. <em>Pfffffffft</em>. That never stopped those petty thieves from stealing bicycles. Never have, never will. Crime is everywhere in this city. The authorities have no time to deal with stuff like this, they have their hands full with gang fights, drug trafficking, murder… the list goes on. Bigger fish to fry. Can’t waste too much resources on some bicycle theft.</p><p><em>Just go and get a new bicycle, you dimwits</em>— Is probably what the police thought every time they received a new report on another theft.</p><p>But, to be fair, it’s not all that bad around here. There are quiet neighbourhoods around here, and the people who live in those neighbourhoods kind of have this silent agreement with one another where the terms are <em>‘I mind my own business, you mind your own business, and we all stay out of trouble for our own sanity.’ </em></p><p>Emma lived in one of those neighbourhoods, thankfully.</p><p>She finished up the last of her yogurt, and placed the bowl in the sink. <em>‘I’ll wash it later… yup.’ </em></p><p>Everything goes as routine. Have breakfast and watch the morning news until the time on the tv screen says 7:30AM. Turn off the television. Clear away breakfast stuff. Grab school bag. Put on shoes. Open the door. Lock the door. Go down six flights of stairs. Go to the the bicycle parking lot. Go to the third lot in the second row. Unlock bic—</p><p>Emma stopped dead in her tracks.</p><p>Her bicycle isn’t there.</p><p>What’s left there, though, was a black chain that was supposed to secure her bicycle on the metal pipes. That chain had been cut.</p><p>Emma could only stare. And blink. And stare at the empty lot some more. And after after a good minute or three she let out a murderous sounding “What the <em>hell</em>.”</p><p>She turned on her heel and immediately ran.</p><p>—</p><p>The homeroom teacher of class 2-A called out name after name in the most booooring, monotonous tone. After calling out each name he will either mark a tick next to the name he called out, or leave it blank.</p><p>“Sylvers Emma?”</p><p>Aaand, <em>silence</em>.</p><p>The homeroom teacher looked up from the class roster and scanned the classroom, before calling out once more, “Sylvers Emma?” Only to be met with silence again, and many pairs of eyes staring blankly at the teacher, some others staring at the empty seat beside the window which belongs to Emma. With an air of indifference, he moved on to the next name. “Trafalgar Law?”</p><p>Behind Emma’s empty seat, the tattooed boy glanced up from the book he was reading. “Here.”</p><p>The teacher went on until he was done with the list. “No announcements for today. Do me a favour and stay out of trouble.” The homeroom teacher drawled out, and ended with ‘<em>brats</em>’. New week. Same routine. Same brats. Same trouble. The teacher sighed, they seem to get worse with each cohort. He picked up his file and walked out of the classroom, and kicked the sliding door shut behind him.</p><p>The class broke out into chatter.</p><p>An orange-haired girl turned around to face the girl seated behind her. “Hey Koala, have you heard from Emma?” She pointed at the empty seat next to Koala.</p><p>Koala was scrolling through her phone and made a little humming noise. “She didn’t say anything about not feeling well, maybe she overslept?” She continued scrolling through her phone, still making no eye contact with Nami. “But that rarely happens, I have to admit. She’s always early, if not on time.”</p><p>“Right?” Nami took out her phone to check if Emma had sent her a text, but she had no new messages. “Could she have texted Sabo?”</p><p>Koala immediately looked up from her phone and stared at Nami as if there’s a mushroom growing at the top of her head. “Nami. No one in their right mind will text Sabo. Even if there’s an emergency.” Because they might as well contact someone else instead. Someone who will check their phone frequently enough. Someone who will bother to reply. Someone who will bother to pick up phone calls.</p><p>“Uh… right.” Nami said lamely. “I forgot. Sorry.”</p><p>A blonde guy in class 2-B sneezed.</p><p>Just then the door slid open and hit against the wall with a loud <em>bang</em>. Emma walked in to the classroom, and with a puff slid the door shut with another loud <em>bang</em>.</p><p>Everyone stared at the latecomer as she stood there silently for a moment, slightly panting. '<em>Poor door…’ </em></p><p>Emma dragged her feet through the classroom to her seat, placed her bag on the little hook on the side of her desk, gracefully seated (read: plopped) herself on the chair, slumped forward and her forehead came into contact with the desk surface with a loud <em>thud</em>. She let out a groan, which could have been mistaken for a dying frog.</p><p>“Good morning to you too, sunshine,” Nami chirped. “Rough night?”</p><p>Emma scoffed at the suggestive tone. “You wished,” she paused for a moment, and sighed. “Someone stole my bicycle. Had to run to the station to catch the train instead.” And after that, she had to run from the station to the school. So, her usual 45 minutes commute to school ended up taking a little over an hour.</p><p>She could hear Koala going <em>oof</em>. “Became a victim of bicycle theft, huh? You poor thing.”</p><p>Emma pouted a little, and started drawing little circles on her desk with her fingers. She sighed again. “Maybe I’ll stop by the second hand shop after school and get a new one.” She felt her mood dampened further at the thought of getting a new bicycle. She really liked the one she had. It was a gift from the old lady who used to work in the general store down the street, just a 5-minute walk from her apartment. She quite liked the elderly woman. Whenever she went down to the store to get some to buy some household items, the old lady would often sneak in some snacks from her store. On days that she was lucky, the old lady would give her some traditional treats she made— daifuku mochi was Emma’s favourite. The old lady always experimented with different flavours. And they were all delicious.</p><p>Unfortunately, the old lady retired, and left the business with her daughter. Sometimes her 7 year-old son will be in the shop, doing his homework or drawing. On even luckier days, the old lady will stop by the shop and bring along some of those delectable treats…</p><p>Emma made a mental note to drop by the general store on her way back to test her luck.</p><p>The door slid open with a <em>bang</em>—again—as their history teacher slid through the doorway with slight difficulty, hands occupied with carrying his bag and graded quiz papers from last week. And so the ruthless onslaught of classes began.</p><p>By the time lunch break came everyone was dead beat.</p><p>Students took out their lunchboxes and crowded in groups. Some students went out to other classrooms to look for their friends, like Koala going to 2-B to look for Sabo and friends, and Nami going to 2-C to look for Luffy and friends. A rowdy bunch, the whole lot of them.</p><p>And then, some students from other classrooms came over to 2-A, like Shachi, Penguin, and Bepo. They stole some empty chairs nearby, and made themselves comfortable around Law’s desk. The three new-comers talked loudly as they ate their lunch (rather, more of Shachi and Penguin arguing over some game, while Bepo threw in some comments here and there). Law paid no attention to his friends, instead he was reading his book while taking occasional bites of the onigiri that Bepo made for him.</p><p>The girl seated in front of them—Emma— did not seemed bothered by the shouting and occasional screeching laughter that came from Penguin and Shachi. In fact, she was too engrossed with reading as well (<em>Underground is an interesting read</em>), it was so easy to block out the noise around her. The katsu sandwich that was her lunch was only half eaten, and the bottled royal milk tea was still unopened.</p><p>Bepo eyed the bottle.</p><p>Bepo hesitated for a few minutes.</p><p>Bepo gave in.</p><p>Bepo tapped on Emma’s shoulder.</p><p>“Hmm?” Emma turned her head to where the tapping came from, and saw Bepo’s beady eyes staring back at her. She gave him a small smile. Bepo is a year younger than them, and he’s also part of the school’s karate club. She did spar with him a few times during training, and he’s crazy strong, arguably one of the best in the school team. Koala’s been insisting she wants Bepo to take over her position as captain in the next academic year. The only issue was, he can be too naive at times. Too gentle. Too polite. Some found it worrying. Emma thought it was an endearing trait of Bepo’s. And for the life of her, she just couldn’t fathom why such a polite boy would hang out with troublemakers that came in the form of Shachi, Penguin, and Law.</p><p>“Do you need something, Bepo?”</p><p>Bepo pointed at the bottled royal milk tea. “Are you going to drink that? If not, may I have it?”</p><p>Emma smiled a little wider. If Bepo’s asking, she would never refuse. She took the bottled and handed it to Bepo. “All yours, enjoy.”</p><p>Bepo took the bottle and cradled it to his chest, and said <em>‘Thank you Emma’</em> with a really huge smile that made him look so pure and child-like, it made Emma’s heart squeeze a little at how <em>precious</em> this boy is.</p><p>Emma picked up her book again to read from where she left off, Bepo twisted the cap until it opened with a small <em>plasticy-snap</em>, and drank the tea. He peered over Emma’s shoulder to peek at her book. “What are you reading?”</p><p>At Bepo’s question to Emma, Law glanced up from his own book and stared at the fellow bookworm in front (both of them were known as <em>The Bookworms of 2-A)</em>.</p><p>“<em>Underground</em>. Written by <em>Haruki Murakami</em>. Have you heard of it?” Emma replied without looking up from her book.</p><p>Bepo shook his head, but realised she couldn’t see him. “No…”</p><p>She passed the book to Bepo, with the back cover facing up so that he could read the summary of the book. “It’s about the gas attack in the Tokyo Subway many years ago. We weren’t around yet back then,” Emma explained. “It had a lot of media coverage for some time, and the perpetrator was executed a two years ago. The author of this book went around interviewing people who were involved in the gas attack.”</p><p>“That’s a rather morbid subject to be interested in, Sylvers-ya,” Law called from behind, hint of amusement in his voice.</p><p>Turning her body so that she could look at the lanky, tattooed boy, she retorted: “I don’t want to hear that from someone who finds joy from dissecting live frogs. Nasty.”</p><p>Law’s grin only grew wider. At this point, Shachi and Penguin finally decided to call truce over whatever they had been arguing over, and turned their focus on Emma. “Emma-chaaaaan, why did you give only Bepo milk tea? What about us?” Penguin cried out.</p><p>“What about us?” Shachi followed suit. Both of them were pouting pitifully at her.</p><p>“…Get it yourself.”</p><p>“Nooooooo!” The both of them wailed.</p><p>Bepo continued to sip on the milk tea happily.</p><p>Law took Emma’s book from Bepo, earning a ‘H-hey!’ from the girl. In return, he tossed the book he was reading to Emma. She caught it with both hands and glared at him. “I’m not done with that book.”</p><p>“And I’m done with mine,” Law said to the irritated girl. He opened the book Underground and began reading it. “I’ll return this next week. Feel free to hold on to my book as long as you want, I don’t need it anymore,” Law waved his hand in a dismissive manner as if saying <em>‘Take that unsightly thing away from me’</em>.</p><p>Shachi laughed and slapped Emma on her back. “Whaddya know? The Bookworms of 2-A are doing book exchanges now! What’s next, study dates?”</p><p>Emma slapped Shachi’s face with Law’s book, which left Shachi in tears as he cradled his nose, and Penguin and Bepo doubled over in laughter.</p><p>She looked at the book she now had, <em>Sophie’s World</em>, a book about philosophy.</p><p>Trafalgar Law, and philosophy? Huh, <em>who knew</em>.</p><p>She had seen this book a few times in the bookstore. Admittedly, she had been wanting to purchase a copy for herself, but usually got distracted by other titles and ended up buying other books instead. If she’s getting it for free… well…</p><p>‘<em>Ah whatever, might as well</em>,’ She flipped open the book, and was five pages in before the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch break.</p><p>—</p><p>Classes ended for the day, everyone was done with cleaning duty, and the hallways were filled with students who were either going home or had to stay back in school for club activities. On Mondays, Emma got to go home after class.</p><p>“Are you sure you don’t want me to follow you to the second hand shop? I could probably get you a further discount,” Nami offered. She opened her shoe locker, took out her outdoor shoes and placed her indoor shoes in the locker.</p><p>Emma shook her head as she took out her shoes as well. “No thanks, I’m not looking to be a cheapskate.”</p><p>“Ouch,” Nami feigned hurt, but the grin on her face betrayed her.</p><p>They headed over together to the school’s bicycle parking lot. Emma waited for Nami as she went to retrieve her bicycle. She looked at the flock of students who were making their way to the school gate, a lot of them with their own bicycles in tow.</p><p><em>Heck</em>, she even saw Trafalgar Law talking to Monkey D. Luffy and Roronoa Zoro from 2-C, all of them had bicycles with them and were waiting for some of their other friends to unlock their bicycles.</p><p>Emma did a double take. Law’s bicycle looked <em>oddly familiar</em>.</p><p>Luckily, Nami decided to approach the group, and Emma could get a closer look on the bicycle in Law’s hands. “You guys hanging out?” Nami asked.</p><p>Luffy smiled wider. “Yeah! We’re gonna get some snacks, Torao’s treating us!”</p><p>“Oi, I never agreed to anything,” Law protested, glaring at the shorter boy.</p><p>Luffy just laughed and slapped on Law’s shoulder repeatedly. “But you got a new bicycle and a new book! That means you’ve got money, right?”</p><p>
  <em>‘A new bicycle?’ </em>
</p><p>Emma walked up to the Law, and examined the bicycle. She looked for a tag in the front basket—there it is— she flipped the tag and written on it, in a script she could recognise even if she got amnesia, was <em>Sylvers Emma</em>. She stared at it for a few seconds. <em>‘So…That means…’ </em></p><p>“AAAAAAAAAHHH!” Emma exclaimed, pointing an accusing figure at Law. “Where the <em>hell</em> did you get <em>my</em> bicycle from?!”</p><p>The tip of Law’s lips curled up into a very annoying, cocky smirk. “I found it in the park last night, so I took it.”</p><p>“LIES.”</p><p>“Do you have proof?” Law countered. That smirk was still on his face. Emma wanted to <em>punch</em> that face. She stayed silent. “I thought so.”</p><p>“Why you little—!”</p><p>“Playground rules, Sylvers-ya,” Law said mockingly, “Finders, keepers.”</p><p>Emma growled and raised her fist, and took a menacing step towards Law. But before she could punch him, Nami and Zoro held her back, and Luffy was just laughing at the whole spectacle. “What the hell are you, a kindergarten kid?!”</p><p>Law reached a tattooed hand out and patted on her head a few times. “There, there. No need to get so worked up,” He hopped on to <em>her</em> bicycle, and waved at them. “See ya,” and he sped out of the school gate before anyone could protest to his departure.</p><p>Everyone just stared at the school gate where Trafalgar Law disappeared, and after a few moments Nami and Zoro released their grip on Emma. She was still glaring at the school gate, as if he was still there, fists still shaking in anger. “T-that little…”</p><p>“Bugger?” Nami pipped.</p><p>“Fucker?” Zoro added.</p><p>“Tattoo man?” Luffy guessed.</p><p>“That’s not an insult, Luffy,” Usopp chided. He had joined the group in the midst of it all, and knew enough of the situation.</p><p>“<strong>NINCOMPOOP</strong>!” Emma shrieked.</p><p>—</p><p>There was an air of depression surrounding Emma. The strangers around her in the train cabin could pick up on her emotional state a mile away, but paid her no heed.</p><p>She reached her station, got off the train, and trudged along the side pavement. She went past the second hand shop without going in. She doesn’t want a new bike anymore, she wants her old one back. Ever since she parted ways with Nami and the rest, she had been trying to formulate plans to retrieving her bicycle back from Trafalgar Law, but her brain seemed to be stuck on an eternal loop of chanting <em>nincompoop.nincompoop.nincompoop.nincompoop. </em></p><p>After a while and many <em>nincompoops</em> later, Emma arrived at the general store. She peeked through the window, and let out a long sigh. The old lady wasn’t in today.</p><p>Oh well, might as well get some yogurt and other stuff to stock up.</p><p>Emma pushed open the door and the bell attached to the door rang. She saw the green-haired woman—the old lady’s daughter—sitting by the counter. The woman looked up at Emma. “Hello Emma! Just ended school?”</p><p>Emma gave a small smile and nodded weakly. “Hello, Makino-san. School’s exhausting,” she lied. Well, not really. School is exhausting, but she didn’t feel like sharing with everyone that the reason for her depressed state was a nincompoop named Trafalgar Law.</p><p>“Gee, no wonder you look so tired,” said Makino. “Though, I think I have something that will cheer you up!”</p><p>Emma’s eyes widened a bit. “Mochi?” She asked hopefully.</p><p>Makino giggled. “Not exactly, but my mother came by just now. She wanted to give this to you,” Makino took out a notebook and handed it to Emma.</p><p>Emma looked at it curiously, and opened the front cover of the notebook. Her eyes scanned through the paper briefly as she flipped page after page. “It’s… a recipe book?”</p><p>“Mmhmm,” Makino confirmed. “My mother knows how much you love mochi, she thought it would be good if you could learn how to make it yourself.”</p><p>Emma felt herself tear up a little bit.</p><p>Quickly blinking her tears aways, she gave Makino a genuine smile. “Thanks, Makino-san. Please give Grandma my thanks, I’ll try making some soon.”</p><p>“No problem!”</p><p>Emma picked up yogurt, strawberries, some vegetables, and she found herself buying ingredients for making mochi.</p><p>—</p><p>Dishes, <em>check</em>.</p><p>Laundry, <em>check</em>.</p><p>Homework, <em>check</em>.</p><p>Pack school bag, <em>check</em>.</p><p>Pack karate uniform, <em>check</em>.</p><p>Prepare tomorrow’s lunch, <em>check</em>.</p><p>By the time she was done with everything, it was close to 11pm. She was mindlessly scrolling through Instagram posts, but after a while got bored and decided to look at the Stories instead. First one on her feeder was Luffy, he took a lot of pictures of himself, Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, underclassman Chopper and upperclassman Brook and Franky eating at a popular cafe joint in downtown. Some of the pictures were decent looking, with everyone smiling at the camera, others just spelled <em>absolute havoc</em>. Nonetheless, it seemed they had a good time. There was even a photo where Luffy mentioned Law, and wrote in the caption that he bailed out on them. The rest of the gang uploaded similar photos, all of them mentioning each other on their posts.</p><p>There was Ace and Sabo, both of them went to the gym after school and took a mirror selfie of themselves shirtless, and hashtagged <em>#NoPainNoGain</em>. Cringey.</p><p>Robin, an upperclassman, posted something about the Russian Revolution, sharing some facts and her opinions on the subject. Emma dutifully read every single history post Robin uploaded. Without it, she would surely be on her way to failing world history by now.</p><p>And then, surprisingly, the next person on her line-up is The Abomination himself, <em>Law</em>. He took a photo of the front cover of Underground, and captioned: ‘<em>Good read</em>’.</p><p>For some reason, Emma felt pleased by it. Of course it’s a good read, she picked up that book herself. It was almost as if he was complimenting her taste in literature, but then she remembered that she stole her beloved bicycle. And any positive feelings she had vanished in an instant.</p><p>A LINE notification popped up from the top of the screen. It was a text from The Abomination.</p><p>
  <strong>Trafalgar Law (2-A) </strong>
</p><p><strong>Hey</strong> - 11:14 PM</p><p>Emma dared not click on the notification. She waited for his next message.</p><p><strong>Meet at Hikawadai Station tomorrow. 8am. Don’t be late</strong> - 11:15 PM</p><p><em>What. The. Heck</em> <strong>. </strong></p><p>Emma contemplated changing his contact name.</p><p>She waited a few minutes before finally opening the chat, and typed out a reply.</p><p>
  <strong>Why should I? </strong>
</p><p>Emma put down her phone and reached for <em>Sophie’s World</em>, flipped open to page 6, and started reading. Her phone vibrated after she was done with the page. Another message from The Abomination.</p><p>
  <strong>Trafalgar Law (2-A) </strong>
</p><p><strong>You’ll get to see your bicycle :)</strong> - 11:19 PM</p><p><strong>See ya</strong> - 11:19 PM</p><p>Emma typed out a short reply.</p><p>
  <strong>Drop dead </strong>
</p><p>She proceeded to change ‘Trafalgar Law (2-A)’ to ‘The Abomination’. She turned off her data network and carelessly threw her phone on the desk beside her bed. She read <em>Sophie’s World</em> until it was slightly past midnight, and finally went to bed.</p><p>—</p><p>She turned up anyways.</p><p>She reached Hikawadai Station at 7.55am, and texted Law asking where the heck was he.</p><p><em>‘One station away’</em>, he said. <em>‘Wait at the vending machines outside the station’</em>, he said.</p><p>True to his word, Law appeared a few minutes later, among the crowd who alighted the train with him. A lot of them were students wearing the same uniform as Law and Emma. Spotting him was easy, he stood at least a head taller than everyone. He pushed her bicycle along, it was covered in a bicycle bag that had to be used if you’re bringing your bicycle on the train.</p><p>Law nodded at her in greeting. Emma glared a bit, but nodded back anyways with a tiny “Morning.” As much as she wanted to pick a fight with him, it was just <em>too early</em> for this. She could wait until lunch break.</p><p>Law took off the bicycle cover, folded it neatly and placed it in the front basket together with his school bag. He got on the bicycle, and looked at Emma.</p><p>Emma stared back. “What.”</p><p>“If you’re gonna take forever to get on, we’ll be late for school,” Law motioned at the seat behind him.</p><p>Oh.</p><p>…What?</p><p>“We’re riding a bicycle to school <em>together</em>?”</p><p>“Would you rather I leave you here to be late for school two days in a row?” Law deadpanned.</p><p>…No. She couldn’t care to be late for school the second time. They are only 4 weeks in the academic year. It wouldn’t look good on her track record.</p><p>She reluctantly sat herself on the seat behind Law, both legs dangling off the same side. One hand hugged her school bag while the other gripped on the metal seat to stabilise herself. Law kicked off the pavement and started pedalling. During the 20-minute ride to school, both of them largely remain silent, until they got to a tiny uphill. Law told her to get off, saying he won’t pedal both of their weights up the hill. They got off the bicycle and walked the rest of the way to school in silence.</p><p>When they reached the school compound, they still had 15 minutes before homeroom started. Law went to the bicycle lot. Emma did not wait for him, and went up to the classroom first.</p><p>Nami and Koala aren’t there yet, so Emma settled for reading her (Law’s) book. She did not even notice Law entering the classroom, until she felt someone walk past her, and there was the noise of the chair being dragged from behind her. He said nothing to her.</p><p>Few minutes later Koala and Nami walked in the classroom together, and greeted Emma ‘<em>Good morning!</em>’, she muttered the greeting back, too focused on the book. Even when the homeroom teacher walked in and performed his daily routine of taking the class attendance and making announcements, Emma’s eyes never left the book. When the first period started, she reluctantly slid the bookmark between the pages and snapped the book shut, and placed it under her desk.</p><p>Classes were mind-numbingly boring. As usual. When lunch came, Emma decided she wanted a change of scenery, and went up to the rooftop with her packed lunch and book.</p><p>Today’s lunch was onigiri coated with furikake, and tofu salad.</p><p>There’s an empty spot by the wall (<em>thank god</em>). Emma made herself comfortable on the concrete floor, skirt fanned out over her legs and on the floor as she propped one ankle over the other, and rested her back against the wall. Onigiri in one hand, book in the other. She held the onigiri closer to her mouth and wanted to take a bite—</p><p>A figure plopped beside her. From the corner of her eye, Emma saw a tattooed hand reaching for her lunchbox—<em>hold on, what? </em></p><p>Next thing Emma knew, she was staring the The Abomination as he took a bite of the other onigiri that she had prepared. He mirrored Emma, onigiri in one hand, book in the other. He was reading Underground, completely ignoring Emma’s stares.</p><p>That <em>nincompoop</em>. <em>Stupid ding-dong</em>.</p><p>“Oi. That’s my lunch.”</p><p>“Hn,” Law grunted in reply, and took another bite of the onigiri. Emma continued to stare at him, waiting for him to say something else. He kept silent.</p><p>Eventually Emma gave up and ate her lunch.</p><p>They spent the rest of lunch break reading in silence. With the occasional spring breeze tickling their skin, and the distant chatter of other students on the rooftop serving as white noise, it could have been a wonderful break. But then there’s Trafalgar Law. His presence irked her.</p><p>Last year, he started some <em>‘Biology Club’</em>, but that name was just a cover up for the club’s real activities. It was a <em>gambling den</em>, and Law was swindling money off some <em>dumbasses</em> who couldn’t tell a scam when they saw one. Apparently Nami caught wind of it and joined the club as well, and ended up giving everyone a run for their money. Literally. By then Law had gotten bored of it all and basically upped and left, leaving everything to Nami. Till this day, some dumbass was still losing his money in the “Biology Club”.</p><p>Another time, there were rumours going around that Luffy and his merry gang mocked some senior named <em>Condoriano</em>—what kind of a stupid name is that? Condoriano was so pissed off he brought his G8 gang down to where the first-year classrooms were, and a fight broke out. Emma wanted to stay out of that fight back then, but some <em>hooligan</em> got the bright idea to snatch her book out of her hand and toss it somewhere, and Emma watched it got stepped on by another <em>hooligan</em>. Emma went on a rampage with nothing but a pen (<em>anything can be made into a weapon if you put your mind to it</em>).</p><p>It was only a while later that it came to light that no one insulted this Condoriano in the first place (and that his real name was Shepherd, how <em>dumb</em>). And the one who started the rumour?</p><p>Well… you know who.</p><p>Trafalgar Law was always instigating something, but rarely got involved in the mess he made, unless he wanted to. Emma had to admit, that’s some <em>skill</em>.</p><p>And then, there were the times where Trafalgar Law, Eustass Kid, and Monkey D. Luffy were hanging out together, the entire cohort (sometimes, school) would prepare for the inevitable chaos. With Law’s brains, and Luffy’s and Kid’s brute strength, it can only mean an all-out brawl. Ah, those were the first-year days.</p><p>They barely started their second-year, who knows what kind of nonsense they will come up with this year?</p><p>The bell rang, rudely dragging Emma out of her musings. She didn’t even realised she lost focus on the text of her book. She heard the sound of the boy beside her snapping the book shut.</p><p>“Thanks for lunch, it was good,” Law called out as he headed for the stairs, face turned enough so that Emma could see the shit-eating grin.</p><p>—</p><p>Afternoon classes passed in a blur, and now Emma was in the girls’ changing room with Koala, stripping the blouse, tie, and skirt, and putting on the white karate-gi.</p><p>“So, where were you during lunch?” Koala asked. Her tone was casual enough, but the raised eyebrow and upward-tug at the corner of her lips suggested something else.</p><p>“Rooftop, why?” Emma replied, just as casual as Koala. Koala hummed in a way that seemed to conveyed <em>‘oh, really?’</em>. “Couldn’t help but noticed that Law-kun wasn’t in the classroom for lunch too,” Koala chirped, her voice dripped with hidden accusations.</p><p>Emma simply <em>hmph-ed</em> and rolled her eyes at Koala.</p><p>They made their way to the sports hall, which was shared between the karate club and kendo club on Tuesdays. From the corner of her eye, Emma saw Zoro and Tashigi sparring each other for warm-ups. On the karate-side of the hall, some of the students were already setting up the training mats. Hack-sensei, the instructor of the club, was seated in a <em>seiza</em> with both eyes closed in meditation.</p><p>More students in white and coloured belts trickled in one by one—there was Bepo too— and soon the 2-hour training commenced.</p><p>—</p><p>“<em>Ngggggooooohhhhhhffffff…</em>” Koala groaned, legs dragging on the floor as she made her way to the school gate. Her body is gonna ache for days.</p><p>Alongside her was Emma, in a similar state of misery. “<em>I know right</em>,” she grunted. Hack-sensei was ruthless today. Brutal. Merciless.</p><p>Bepo and a few others were there too, all exhausted from the ass-whooping they got for training today. Within the group of them, there was enough misery to last them till the next semester.</p><p>“Can I call in sick tomorrow?” One student asked. He sounded like he was on the verge of tears.</p><p>Bepo patted the kid on the back gently. “There there… I’ll keep the handouts for you tomorrow,” he offered politely.</p><p>The other student cried tears of gratefulness, and kept thanking Bepo non-stop.</p><p>As they approached the bicycle lot, Emma looked over to see if her bicycle was there. It wasn’t. She felt a tinge of disappointment, she could <em>really</em> use a ride to the train station—</p><p>‘<em>No</em>,’ she was just fine. She can make it to the station on foot. <em>No problem</em>.</p><p>Emma and Bepo parted ways with Koala and the rest. The both of them would usually chat on the way until they reached the station, where Bepo would continue his walk home alone and Emma on the train. But for today, both of them had a silent agreement that they were too shagged to bother with any conversation. It was only when they reached the station, did they opened their mouth to say <em>‘bye bye’</em> to each other with tired smiles.</p><p>The train ride was uneventful. It was crowded from all the students and adults who were headed home after a long day. She couldn’t even take her book out from her bag without elbowing someone. The train ride felt longer than usual.</p><p>She felt her stomach constricting uncomfortably. It was crying for food. ‘<em>Me too,</em>’ Emma thought, ‘<em>I want food too, so pipe it down until we’re home.</em>’ She made a mental note to drop by the convenience store to pick up some food. No cooking today.</p><p>Emma alighted at her station, up the escalator, and headed for the convenience store just opposite the station and—</p><p>That <em>bicycle</em>.</p><p><em>Her bicycle</em>. It was chained to a lamp post just outside the convenience store.</p><p>She looked through the glass panels of the store, looking out for a head with messy black hair and two golden earrings on each ear— <em>there he is</em>.</p><p>Emma sighed, steeled her resolve, and pushed open the door. She walked up to the bento section, where Law was at. He was no longer wearing his uniform, instead wearing a T-shirt, sweatpants, and sandals. He spotted her immediately, and smirked.</p><p>“Getting dinner?” He asked.</p><p>She nodded, and turned her attention to the refrigerated shelves. After looking through her options (none of them looked appetising, they were left behind on the shelves for a reason), Emma randomly took a bento box. She was hungry, anything edible will do at this point. She made her way to the counter, took her wallet out to pay—tattooed hands placed another bento box on top of hers.</p><p>“Um… would you like to pay for it together or separately?” The cashier asked.</p><p>Both of them replied at the same time. Emma said <em>‘separately’</em>, Law said <em>‘together’</em>.</p><p>Emma glared at him. “I’m not paying for you.”</p><p>“Actually, I was about to offer to pay for the both of us,” Law’s smirked grew even wider. “But if you don’t want that, then it’s fine too.”</p><p>Emma scoffed. “<em>Yeah right</em>, as if you would pay for me. But no thanks anyway.”</p><p>After she paid for her food, she headed for the door but got yanked back by Law grabbing her bag. She let out a small yelp as she stumbled backwards, hands flailing in front of her in a piss-poor attempt at regaining her balance. A firm hand pressed on the back of her shoulders, helping Emma to stand properly.</p><p>She turned to glare at Law. “What the hell do you want now?!”</p><p>He grabbed the plastic bag in her hands, and handed it to the cashier. “Heat this up, and that too,” he gestured towards his own bento.</p><p>The cashier nodded dumbly and scurried away with their bento boxes.</p><p>Law looked at the girl, returning her glare with that cocky smirk that never left his face. “There’s a park just down the street.”</p><p>“I know, <em>I live in this area</em>,” Emma said.</p><p>“<em>I know</em>,” Law parroted her. “Let’s eat there.”</p><p><em>“HUH?”</em> Her exclamation caused a few heads to turned in her direction, but she ignored them. “What am I, your dinnertime entertainment?”</p><p>“Exactly.”</p><p>Emma sighed. She’s too tired to argue with him, and decided to just follow for now, finish her dinner ASAP, and go home.</p><p>Law carried their dinner, dragging her bicycle along as they made their way to the park. They found an empty bench and settled there. He handed the bento to Emma. She placed it on her lap, muttered <em>‘itadakimasu’</em> before opening the lid.</p><p>There was silence for a while as both of them ate, not a word spoken. Emma opted to watch the children playing in the playground.</p><p>“If you’re not careful, you’ll choke to death,” Law said bluntly, but to Emma’s trained ears she could hear a lot of amusement in his voice.</p><p>She gave him a pointed look. “I’d rather eat in the comfort of my home, but someone decided to drag me here instead.”</p><p>Law hummed, “I wonder who.”</p><p>“Can I punch you?”</p><p>“No you may not,” Law chuckled. “I thought I’d show you where I found your bicycle.”</p><p>
  <em>…Huh? </em>
</p><p>“You’re kidding.”</p><p>Law shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. It’d be so much easier to hate on me if I was, right?” He looked at her, watching as her face contorted into something that look like disbelief, and, <em>is that horror? </em></p><p>“You’re lying,” Emma insisted.</p><p>“I knew you’d say that,” he sighed. “Which is why…”</p><p>Emma tilted her head, cheeks puffed out as it was stuffed with food. She chewed slowly. Which is why <em>what? </em></p><p>“I thought I’d arranged a meeting with the lot who stole your bicycle,” he finished with a satisfied smirk. “In fact, they should be here any minute now.”</p><p><em>Thank god</em> she swallowed her food already, if not she was sure she would spit at Law’s face—actually, on second thought, that didn’t seem like a bad idea— “You what?!” She hissed.</p><p>“OI TRAFALGAR!” A male voice bellowed. Emma and Law turned to look at where the voice came from. There was a guy that looked like a typical high school delinquent, and behind him stood another four guys. Their uniform was different from her school’s. They all carried a weapon of some kind in their hands, Emma spotted a small blade, a baseball bat, and a cudgel. She frowned.</p><p>“Did you have to pick a fight with them?” She whispered to Law.</p><p>Law grinned. “Oh no, I think you’re getting the wrong idea here. <em>You’re the one who picked a fight with them</em>.”</p><p>Before Emma could protest, the group walked up to them and the leader spoke: “Who’s the one that ordered you to steal from us?!”</p><p>Emma didn’t know if she wanted to laugh, or cry. For god’s sake, she could see where this was going already.</p><p>Law nodded his head towards Emma, who sighed and set her bento box on the bench. The next thing she knew, the leader of the small gang grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and pulled her up.</p><p>“What’s your problem, huh?!” He snarled in her face.</p><p><em>Oh, the nerve of this guy</em>. He was the one who stole her bicycle, and he had the <em>audacity</em> to go around blaming others for his own misfortune? <em>How dare he. </em></p><p>Emma weighed her options. Reasoning with them was out of the question, she was sure the sum of all of their IQs would be a single digit number. It’s a miracle they made it to high school. Her next option was to just blame Law, but then there is an issue of whether they believed her or not. Her last option is to, quite simply, beat them up. But she’s <em>tired</em>.</p><p>She sighed. She tried Option 1: Reasoning with them.</p><p>“To be fair, you <em>did</em> steal my bicycle. I’m just taking back what’s mine.”</p><p>He sneered. “Oh? Then what about our money, huh?”</p><p>In a split second, Emma thought that maybe, <em>just maybe</em>, there’s a way to get The Abomination involved in this as well.</p><p>She pointed at Law with her thumb. “That’s all on him. I don’t give a damn about your money.”</p><p>The guy followed where her thumb pointed at, and saw Law grinning at him. Law shrugged and said, “I’m just a lackey.”</p><p>‘<em>Hah</em>,’ Emma thought, ‘<em>More like mastermind</em>.’</p><p>The guy turned to look at Emma again. “Why should I believe you?”</p><p>Emma sighed inwardly. Dragging Law down with her seemed out of the question as well. And she knew for a fact that she had nothing to convince this guy that Law was the mastermind, not her.</p><p>‘<em>A fight it is, then</em>.’</p><p>“You don’t have to,” she said simply. She clenched her fist and punched him in the face, the force sending him tumbling onto the group of guys behind him. He had let got of his hold on her shirt, hands reaching up to feel his broken nose.</p><p>Emma spread her feet further apart in a familiar stance, fists positioned on her sides, and exhaled through her mouth.</p><p>The lackey with cudgel ran up to her first. Great, Emma had been eyeing for that.</p><p>He raised the cudgel above his head, prepared to strike it down on Emma’s head. ‘<em>What an amateur</em>,’ She thought, as she side-stepped out of the way and punched him in the stomach. In a moment of weakness, he loosen his grip on the cudgel. Emma snatched the weapon from him, swing it out sideways and aimed at the side of his head. The blow was enough to knock him out, He fell to the floor, there was a small trickle of blood that ran from where Emma hit him that ran to the ground.</p><p>
  <em> She’s so sore. </em>
</p><p>At least she was armed with a long-range weapon now. The remaining guys were easy to deal with, they are all amateurs, obviously never trained to fight before. With a series of parries, jabbing, and swinging of the cudgel, Emma knocked all of them out in no time. When she was sure they couldn’t get up, she threw the cudgel on the floor.</p><p>She heard a slow clap from behind. “Excellent performance, Sylvers-ya. One of the best dinnertime entertainment I’ve had,” Law said lazily. He was still smirking.</p><p>“I heard karma’s a bitch. I hope you die a slow, terrible death.”</p><p>Law’s smirk only grew wider. “It’s not befitting of someone with a face like that to be so crude. But I suppose I should thank you, these guys have been giving me quite a few problems.”</p><p>“…Did you just use me to do your dirty work?”</p><p>Law patted her head. “And you did a wonderful job.”</p><p>She raised a fist to punch him—</p><p>His tattooed hand grabbed her wrist before she could reach his face. “Now now, no need to get so worked up,” he repeated the words he said to her yesterday. It sounded like he was mocking her. “That said, I’m not entirely heartless. In exchange for your services today, how about I do you a favour?”</p><p>“Oh really? Then die.”</p><p>Law chuckled. “No thank you, I’d rather live. But I’ll call the shots and decide when I will do you a favour.”</p><p>“Shouldn’t I be the one calling the shots?” Emma asked.</p><p>Law grinned. “Nah.”</p><p>They made their way over to the bench. Law took their forgotten bento boxes and threw them in a nearby waste bin. Emma grabbed her bag.</p><p>“Com’on, I’ll walk you home,” Law offered.</p><p>Emma sighed and waved at him tiredly, as if saying <em>‘do whatever you want, I don’t care'. </em></p><p>They walked in silence for a while, and Emma’s thoughts started <em>sprinting</em>. A sudden realisation flew and hit her smack in the face. Law had to be living somewhere near here, right?</p><p>‘<em>NOOOOooOOoooooo….</em>’ Emma cried internally.</p><p>“You…” Emma started.</p><p>“Hm?”</p><p>Emma swallowed thickly, afraid of the answer to the question she had yet to ask. “You don’t happen to live in this neighbourhood, right?”</p><p>Law quirked an amused eyebrow. “Why else would I be here?”</p><p>Emma sighed. It was a very depressing sigh.</p><p>“I live just a few blocks away from you. About 10 minutes on foot,” Law elaborated, completely ignoring the girl.</p><p>“And you even know where I stay, <em>great</em>,” Emma’s tone was dripping with sarcasm.</p><p>“You know, if you paid more attention to your surroundings in the morning, you would have seen me a few times.”</p><p>“…Oh.”</p><p>Silence took over for the rest of their walk. When they arrived at her apartment building, Law waved a hand at her nonchalantly. His other hand held onto the handles of her bicycle. “See you tomorrow. Be here at 7.30am.”</p><p>Emma squinted her eyes at him. Law did not wait for her to reply, and started walking away.</p><p>—</p><p>From that day on, they met every morning, outside of Emma’s apartment building, and they would travel to school together.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I had to include Condoriano, it's just too funny. In fact, I hope to bring him back in future chapters.<br/>The books mentioned in this chapter:<br/>Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder: It's an introduction on the history of philosophy, mainly some famous philosophers, and their works.<br/>Underground by Haruki Murakami: The author interviewed the victims, and cult members of Aum Shinrikyo who were involved in the Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995. He compiled their testimonies in this book.</p><p>I’ve decided to come back to writing fanfics! Previously I had written 2 OP fics, both were also LawxOC. But that was many years ago, when I was 15? I re-read my work a few months back and golly, it was trash. I had to delete it. I’m 21 now, and I still love Law a lot, he deserves all the love in the world. All the hugs. All the wholesomeness.  </p><p>I’ve got a few inspirations for this fic. One of it is FRUITPUNCHED by razbliuto, you can read their work here on fanfic.net, it’s also a high school AU. Also, please read Methyl Nitrate Pineapples, written by the same author.</p><p>My other inspiration is Durarara!!, there’s an anime series of it and I highly recommend watching it. To summarise, the show is about high school gangsters, urban myths, flying vending machines, and Russian assassins. So much chaotic energy.</p><p>All the chaos. All the havoc. I love it, and I hope you love it too.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Helloooo people I'm so sorry for not updating in so long :') I had a pretty whacky semester and currently it's my break, but I still gotta work 2 jobs to earn moolah :'))) I'd love to update more regularly but oh well, life amirite? Anyways, I hope all of you out there are taking care of yourselves, no matter which part of the world you're in. Wear your masks and wash your hands with soap. Merry Christmas and here's to a better 2021 to everyone!</p><p>Hope you enjoy this chapter and some reviews would be lovely (if you have any ideas or inspiration for me then do let me know hehe)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Koala felt a light poke on her cheek. She ignored it.</p><p>Another poke.</p><p>"What is it, Sabo-kun?" She sighed. Her eyes remained fixated on her chemistry notes in her hands, not looking at the boy.</p><p>"Quiz me," Sabo begged.</p><p>"Look, we only have 5 minutes left. No amount of quizzing will make a difference at this point," she replied flatly, still reading her notes. "Besides, it's your fault for not preparing for midterms earlier."</p><p>Sabo pouted. He turned to Emma, and was about to ask her for the same thing but before he could even speak a work Emma cut him off with a flat "No."</p><p>"I haven't even said anything!" Sabo exclaimed. Emma shrugged.</p><p>Emma too, was reading the notes she prepared for the midterm tests. Students were gathered in the hallways, outside of the classrooms. The voices of many students reverberated in her ears. Many of them had the same idea as Sabo and were giving each other last-minute quizzes, others trying to confirm some theories, and some just murmuring chemistry whatnots to themselves in a pitiful attempt to stuff information in their tiny brains just few minutes before they had to be ushered into their classrooms.</p><p>Few minutes later, the teacher came out of the classroom to announce that they could enter the classroom, put their bags at the front of the classroom, bring only the necessary materials blah blah blah…</p><p>Koala took her stack of notes, and gently tapped on Sabo's head once, then both his shoulders. "In the name of the God of Chemistry, I bless you with the knowledge you will need for this final paper. Good luck!" Koala beamed at Sabo as she waved at him. She grabbed Emma's wrist and pulled her along towards their classroom.</p><p>Emma waved at Sabo too. "If you ever get stuck on a questions, just communicate with either one of us with telepathy!" She advised, before disappearing behind the doors with Koala.</p><p>"…Thanks for nothing, both of you," Sabo sighed, making his way to his own classroom for the impending doom that was about to befall on him.</p><p>—</p><p>A week later, everyone got back their midterms results. Koala did decently, getting a good mix of As and Bs. Whereas for Emma, she got more Bs than As, but she was still satisfied with her results. <em>Except for that one C she got for biology…</em></p><p>During their break, both girls went over to class 2-B to see how Sabo fared.</p><p>"Mostly Bs, thankfully," he sighed. "Luffy though…"</p><p>"What about him?" Asked Emma.</p><p>Apparently he failed all his papers, but the saddest part is he failed just by a few measly marks. Koala chided Sabo for allowing this to happen in the first place. Right before the day of their first paper, they were fooling around and playing video games with Ace. It's not too much of an issue for Sabo, since he listens in class (but whether he did his homework or not is another issue). For Ace? He sleeps in class a lot because of his narcolepsy issue, but at least he bothers to catch up on lessons when he is awake. Luffy? He can't be bothered, he just wants to have fun. Always running around screaming something about <em>Freedom </em>and <em>The Ocean. </em></p><p>"He barely made it into the second year, didn't he?" Koala recalled, tapping a finger on her chin.</p><p>Next to her, Emma nodded. "There was even a betting pool on when Luffy will drop out of high school."</p><p>"Eh?!" Exclaimed Koala. "Who—what—why?"</p><p>Emma only needed to say one word to answer all of Koala's questions: <em>Law</em>.</p><p><em>Ah, figures</em>, Koala had muttered to herself, before Shachi and Penguin decided to barge in on their conversation.</p><p>Both boys each wrapped an arm around Emma's shoulders, Shachi on her right and Penguin on her left, and greeted her with a loud '<em>Emma-chaaaaaan!' </em>(and for the damage they had done to her ears, she pulled on their ear lobes until they let go of her).</p><p>"How's your midterms?" Shachi asked first, quickly recovering from Emma's ear pull.</p><p>"It's fine, nothing to brag home about," Emma brushed off easily. Well, not like there's anyone at home for her to brag to anyways…</p><p>A figure towered over Emma from behind, and a very familiar voice announced: "Your biology paper didn't seem <em>fine.</em>"</p><p>Emma slowly turned around and craned her neck upwards a little, Law's steel-grey eyes bore through her, and unless Emma's eyes were playing tricks on her, it almost seemed as if his eyes were gleaming with <em>glee</em>.</p><p>She frowned. "At least I passed," Emma grumbled.</p><p>"Barely," Law shot back. He glanced at the clock on top of the the blackboard, <em>fifteen</em><em> minutes till their break is over. </em>He grabbed Emma's arm and started dragging her towards the door. "I'll take a look at your paper," Law drawled, ignoring Emma protests and arm-slapping as she was fussing about how she didn't need any help from him.</p><p>Just before they reached the door, Emma turned to her group of friends who were still circled around Sabo's desk. She looked at them with her best <em>I'm-a-kicked-puppy </em>look. They waved her off with smiles on their faces.</p><p>Heartless bastards.</p><p>—</p><p>Nothing much happened for the rest of the school day. Instead of the usual lessons, the teachers have prepared various activities for the week to teach the students things that are out of the curriculum to "<em>broaden their horizons</em>". The lists of activities includes a Cooking Class (some students argued: <em>'Isn't that the usual home economics class?'</em>), a trip to the Edo-Tokyo Museum, and finally the annual Sports Festival to end off the week.</p><p>— Tuesday: Cooking Class —</p><p>Everyone was told to gather in the kitchens after home room. And please bring along your aprons, caps, and food containers. Since there were only two kitchens in the school, class 2-A and 2-B got to go in the morning, and they would switch over in the afternoon for 2-C and 2-D.</p><p>Their home economics teacher announced that they will be working in pairs, as usual. Typically they were paired according to their order in the class list. In that case, Emma should be paired with Shirahoshi, as usual.</p><p>Her eyes darted around the kitchen until she saw the pink-haired girl talking to another girl in their class. Emma walked up to her. "Shirahoshi-san! Should I get the ingredients for the both of us?"</p><p>Shirahoshi turned upon hearing Emma's voice, and her head tilted slightly to the side as she looked at Emma funny. "Eh? But I'm pairing with her today," Shirahoshi pointed to the girl she was talking to earlier. "Since Camie-chan is absent today, the pairings got affected," she explained.</p><p>'<em>Oh, that's right,'</em> Emma thought, <em>'Camie wasn't there for home room this morning.'</em></p><p>So instead of partnering the person before her, she would be partnering the person after.</p><p><em>Wait</em>.</p><p>"Oi, what are you doing?" A familiar voice snapped at Emma.</p><p>Emma sighed. That's right, Trafalgar was after Sylvers.</p><p>"I've got the stuff already, get your ass over here," Law motioned to one of the counters where he had placed the ingredients already.</p><p>"Blessings be upon me," Emma whispered to herself, making her way to where Law was.</p><p>They were making scotch eggs and a simple salad. The teacher offered to make rice for everyone, so that they can all eat what they made for lunch.</p><p>Emma gave herself a mental pat on the back for not preparing today's lunch.</p><p>The students followed along as the teacher gave them instructions. Boil the eggs, put them in an ice bath, peel them, set aside, chop up the veggies, yada yada yada.</p><p>They decided to take turns cutting the vegetables.</p><p>Emma stood next to Law as she watched him have a go with the knife. She found herself slightly impressed, from the way Law handled the knife, he's definitely not foreign to the idea of cooking. Without realising it, Emma let out a hum of approval.</p><p>"I know how to cook too, you know," Law remarked when he heard Emma. He eyed the girl next to him, and was slightly taken aback to find her grinning at him.</p><p>"Couldn't tell, you always ate store-bought onigiri before you started stealing my lunch," she pointed out. "By the way, I still want repayment for all the times you stole my food."</p><p>Law waved her off, and went back to cutting the onions (Emma insisted he cut the onions because he's a lot taller, so he wouldn't cry. He rolled his eyes at her logic, but really he found it amusing).</p><p>After that, they prepared the patty that was to be wrapped around the egg. Minced pork, bread crumbs, milk, onions, some spices, and eggs. Emma was dead set on cracking the eggs. So Law let her have her fun, and teased her when she got a bit of the shell in the bowl.</p><p>"Such as amateurish mistake for someone who cooks often."</p><p>Emma clicked her tongue and slapped his arm lightly in retaliation. "Happens from time to time, get over it."</p><p>With gloves on, both of them took a boiled egg each, and started wrapping it with the minced pork. After that they coated the wrapped egg with flour, more egg, and bread crumbs. Emma blew some leftover flour in Law's face, and he flicked her forehead.</p><p>They brought the wrapped egg to the deep-fry station. The teacher had set up three fryers, and there was only one other pair of students now. Law and Emma took another fryer. Law placed an egg on the strainer for Emma to gently lower the egg in hot oil. "Be careful of the oil splatters," he warned.</p><p>The first one was alright. Come the second egg, Emma was lifting her elbows up to avoid the oil splatters from the first egg frying. After the second egg was in the oil, she recoiled her arm away quickly. There were a few red spots forming on her arm from the oil splatters.</p><p>"I'll take over, go wash your arm," Law told her. He picked up a tong and moved the eggs around so that it will get an even fry all over.</p><p>After Emma washed her arms, she went back to the deep-fry station, but stood at a distance away to avoid getting burned by more oil splatters. She watched as Law stood in front of the fryer, not even flinching at all when the oil came into contact with his skin.</p><p>After a few minutes Law took out the eggs out and placed it on a tray with paper towels that Emma prepared earlier, and they went back to their counter.</p><p>There wasn't much to do for the salad, it was just some chopped cabbage, and dump as much sesame dressing as you want. Tada.</p><p>They were one of the first few pairs to finish, so they sat at their counters and watched the rest of the class as they were struggling.</p><p>"Oh, Black Leg-ya and Killer-ya are really going at it," Law observed.</p><p>"Hm?" Emma looked at where Law was looking, and saw the two guys in question glaring at each other, and their respective partners standing far away from them. "What are they doing?"</p><p>Law shrugged. "Don't know, but at least it'll keep me entertained for," he paused and looked at the clock, "forty-five minutes."</p><p>Emma hummed again, and decided to watch the two blondes argue as well. A few minutes later the teacher intervened, and somehow the entire situation escalated to Sanji and Killer facing each other for a cook-off. The rest of the class abandoned their scotch eggs, and opted to look at Sanji and Killer as they made another dish. Everyone insisted the teacher to be the judge.</p><p>Emma whistled. "Wow, they're really fired up."</p><p>"Now <em>this, </em>is entertainment." Law chuckled.</p><p>Both of them watched the impromptu cook-off away from the crowd, occasionally making their own remarks and commentaries to make it more fun.</p><p>"What do you think is Black Leg-ya's secret ingredient?"</p><p>"His perviness and never-ending desire to please the girls."</p><p>"Wrong, it's the blood coming out from his nose, probably mixed with some of his nose hair."</p><p>Emma laughed. "Ew."</p><p>Neither of them realised it, but at some point they called truce to whatever disagreement they had with one another. And at some point, Emma found herself enjoying the position of the bystander, watching all the chaos and fights from the sidelines, instead of just avoiding it completely.</p><p>When it was nearing the end of the lesson, Sanji and Killer were handing out samples of the dishes they made to everyone in the class. They made extras for everyone, and the students of 2-A were more than happy to be getting free food. Before the teacher could announce her judgement, the bell rang, and abruptly told the class to pack up and move back to their classrooms, much to the disappointment of everyone.</p><p>On their way back to the classroom, Emma took a bite of the chicken karaage Killer made, while Law tried the curry pasta Sanji made. Without a word, both of them held out the containers they had for the other to make a switch.</p><p>"We're well fed today," Law said, still chewing the food in his mouth.</p><p>"Gotta work all these calories off later during training later," Emma sighed as she rubbed her tummy.</p><p>Until lunch break came, Law and Emma read their own books (<em>Bookworms of 2-A!</em>), not listening to the teacher as he was talking about the history of <em>Rakugo.</em></p><p>Lunch came, Penguin, Shachi and Bepo decided to come by and drop them a visit. Penguin and Shachi heard a commotion coming from 2-A during the cooking class, and wanted to know what the fuss was all about. Emma told them about the cooking competition between Sanji and Killer, and how everyone in 2-A had their own share of food.</p><p>"Did you save some for us?!" Shachi asked.</p><p>"We ate everything," Law replied. "It was delicious," he added, just to provoke them even further.</p><p>"Law! How could you!" Shachi cried.</p><p>"I thought we were friends!" Penguin cried too.</p><p>Emma ignored their antics and turned to Bepo, offering half of the scotch eggs they made earlier.</p><p>Bepo munched on it happily.</p><p>— Wednesday: A Trip to Edo-Tokyo Museum —</p><p>The school's Humanities Department arranged different activities across different cohorts. For the second year students, the teachers decided to bring them to the museum to learn more about the Edo period. They were all given worksheets, and had to go around the museum to fill them in. And to top it off, they had to write up a report and submit it the following week. Everything was to be done in pair work.</p><p>When their home room teacher announced this, Emma sighed (s<em>he's been sighing a lot recently, she realised</em>). Camie was still absent, apparently she came down with a pretty bad flu, and won't be in school for the rest of the week.</p><p>She felt the weight of a flat object placed on her head from behind. "Don't sound so depressed, I recalled you had a lot of fun with me yesterday," Law mocked.</p><p>The school had chartered buses to transport the students. The museum is quite a distance away from the school, their teacher estimated they would take almost an hour to reach there, provided there is no traffic congestion along the way.</p><p>For some reason, the teacher insisted everyone sit with their partners. Sheesh.</p><p>Despite that, it was a sight to behold, really. Everyone else in the bus were either chatting up with their friends, or fell asleep the moment they got to their seats.</p><p>Emma and Law whipped out their books and started reading before the bus even left.</p><p>Emma wasn't even halfway through <em>Sophie's World</em>. She didn't want to rush it, and took her time reading it to digest the information, and to understand the theories that various ancient philosophers came up with. She found herself having to back track a few times to read sentences over and over again. Law, on the other hand, was already reading another book. He had returned Emma's book last week.</p><p>Ten minutes into the bus ride, Emma found herself getting motion sickness from reading while the bus was moving. Reluctantly, she closed her book and kept it in her bag, and chose to look out the window instead. Long ago, someone told her that if she ever got motion sickness, looking far out helps with the headache and nausea, so that's what she did.</p><p>Law noticed the change, but did not comment on it. He continued to read, unaffected by the jerky movements of the bus.</p><p>Eventually, Emma felt drowsy, and thought she should get some eye shut for a bit.</p><p>She woke up to Law shaking her shoulders lightly. Her head was leaning against Law's arm.</p><p>"We're reaching soon," Law informed her. Emma responded with a yawn.</p><p>"So, do I make a good pillow?"</p><p>Emma tried her damndest to swallow whatever feelings of embarrassment was bubbling up within her, and feigned indifference. With a steady voice, she replied: "Yeah, ever considered going into the pillow business? People can pay you and use you as a pillow."</p><p>"Would you pay me to use me as a pillow?"</p><p>"Nope, wouldn't pay a single yen."</p><p>The class of 2-A got off the bus, and gathered in the lobby to meet their guide. After a brief introduction on the museum's history, the guide brought them in and started to show exhibit after exhibit to the students. He shared about some of the artefacts that archaeologists unearthed, ranging from pottery to cutlery, art works to samurai armours. Most students dutifully took down notes and filled in their worksheets, while some decided to snap pictures of the description of each display and fill in the worksheet later. Emma and Law decided to snap pictures first, do work later.</p><p>When their class reached the samurai exhibit, they found Zoro all alone, looking at the samurai armour display. His classmates were nowhere to be found.</p><p>"Zoro, you're not lost, are you?" Nami sighed. Sanji was snickering behind her.</p><p>"I'm not lost," Zoro gritted out. "They were just here a second ago, and left without telling me. How is that my fault?!" He grumbled a bit more, and started to walk off somewhere else, but Nami held him by the collar before he could get away any further.</p><p>"Hold it, don't go anywhere! If you get lost, the teachers will call for a manhunt for you. Just stay here and follow our class!" Nami scolded him, but she did not stop there. She went on to rant about all the previous times Zoro got lost, which caused a lot of trouble for everyone, just to prove her point. Eventually Zoro got tired of hearing all of it, told Nami to shut it, and followed 2-A begrudgingly.</p><p>Emma thought it was amazing how no one told them off for being noisy in the museum.</p><p>It didn't take long for class 2-C's teacher to realise that Zoro was missing. Just a few minutes later their teacher received a phone call, and Emma overheard their teacher saying "Don't worry, his friends are keeping a tight leash on him. He won't get lost again."</p><p>After going through the entire exhibit, the students were given some time to themselves to wander around the museum. Emma wanted to check the gift shop to see if they sold any interesting books about the Edo Period. Law went to the museum cafe to get some coffee and to laze around for a bit.</p><p>Emma spent quite some time holed up in the gift shop, together with Nami and Koala, as they pored over introductory books, and went around poking at little trinkets displayed on the shelves. Much to Nami and Koala's surprise, Emma decided not to get anything. There was nothing in there that caught her interest.</p><p>Law expressed the same sentiment. He raised an eyebrow at her when he saw that she came back empty handed "Found nothing huh?"</p><p>Emma shrugged, and took a sip of the coffee she had requested Law to get for her before she went to the gift shop. "Nothing that can't be found on the internet. I was thinking maybe I could find something that will help us with the report, but…" She trailed off.</p><p>"Internet," Law finished for her.</p><p>"Yeah."</p><p>Not too long after, Shachi and Penguin came along and made themselves comfortable at their table, complaining how there weren't any empty seats left in the museum cafe as it was all occupied by the other students. By some dumb luck—or perhaps, <em>misfortune</em>— the both of them were paired together for this history assignment. Between Law, Emma, and the whole of class 2-B, it is no secret that both Shachi and Penguin hate history with a <em>burning passion.</em>So when the pair approached Law and Emma, the both of them already knew Shachi and Penguin had some sort of ulterior motive.</p><p>Penguin leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, cupping his face with his hands. "Sooo…"</p><p>Shachi copied Penguin. "We have a requessssst…"</p><p>"No," Law rejected flatly.</p><p>"Listen to what we have to say first!" Shachi complained. "Geez."</p><p>Penguin eyed Emma as she was filling up the worksheet they were given, referring to the pictures that she and Law took while they were looking through the exhibits earlier. Penguin clapped both of his hands together and bowed his head low. "We're begging you, Emma, please let us copy your worksheet!"</p><p>"Sure," Emma replied nonchalantly as she scribbled the answers for the last question on the worksheet, and held the piece of paper out for Penguin. He snatched the paper out of her hand in a flash, giving Emma a wide grin. "Thanks Emma, you're a lifesaver!"</p><p>Law stared at Emma blankly, and she was pretty sure she felt an aura of disapproval radiating from him.</p><p>"…What?"</p><p>Law shook his head in response. "You're gonna spoil them."</p><p>"Nah, they'll be fine," Emma waved him of nonchalantly. "They'll do so well in physics and win so many competitions in the Robotics Club, they'll get scholarship offers from Universities all over the country."</p><p>"If, they do win," Law reasoned.</p><p>"If, indeed."</p><p>They spent the rest of the time at the museum cafe discussing on how they should go about writing the history report, where they should get their resources from (Emma suggested to ask Robin, and Law agreed with the idea), and of course, when they should meet up to get started on the report. Law proposed they get started this Friday after the Sports Festival is over, then meet up on Saturday to get the bulk of the report done, and if necessary, meet again on Sunday to finalise everything and tidy things up.</p><p>"I have work this Saturday, my shift ends at 5pm," Emma said.</p><p>Law raised an eyebrow at that. It was rare for high schoolers to work a part time job, since most of them would rather spend their free time to catch up on their studies or have fun with their friends. In fact, it was common for schools to ban students from working part time during the school term since they don't want the students to neglect their studies. Thankfully, their school does not have this particular rule.</p><p>"Where do you work at?" Law asked.</p><p>"Tully's Coffee, at Sunshine City" Emma replied.</p><p>"How about I meet you there after your shift ends," Law suggested. "We can get some work done there. They do offer free Wi-Fi, right?"</p><p>Emma nodded. "We can probably stay there until closing, I'm sure my manager doesn't mind."</p><p>They talked a little more about the report, Emma's workplace, and somehow the entire conversation led to them getting into a little debate on why cereal is not soup—in Emma's case, <em>Why Cereal Is Soup.</em>In between all of that, Shachi came by to return Emma her worksheet after they were done copying her answers. A few of their classmates circled around them to listen in on the heated discussion. Then, Sanji joined in as well with the opinion that cereal isn't soup, only to change his opinion immediately after finding out that Emma was arguing that cereal is soup.</p><p>Eventually the teacher came by to collect their worksheets and informed the students to line up and get ready to board the bus back to school, effectively breaking up their argument before they could arrive at a conclusion.</p><p>— Friday: Annual Sports Festival —</p><p>Students were buzzing with excitement, classrooms filled with tension as students in every class were getting ready to play games with<em>—thrash—</em>students from other classes. Everyone was proudly clad in their class t-shirts which students have designed themselves, with a cloth headbands tied around their forehead. Those who volunteered to represent the class for various events huddled together as they went through the game plan one more time, while those who preferred to stay on the sidelines have prepared bottles of isotonic drinks, paper fans, clappers, pom poms, and really just about anything they could get their hands on that allowed them to render quality support to the athletes.</p><p>One by one, students marched out of their classrooms and out onto the school field, where the festival will be held the at the entire day.</p><p>With the whole school gathered at the field, the principal begins with his welcome speech. After that, upbeat pop music starts to play through the speakers as teachers announced the games and which classes that will be playing. "Piggyback race, representatives of class 2-A, 2-B, 2-C, and 2-D, please report to Area C now!"</p><p>Nami and Sanji stood up, the former with a somewhat irritated scowl on her face while the latter was swooning over her and chanting: "Nami-swaaaaaan~ I'll carry you to the moon and back if you'd let me!" The second-year students snickered at Sanji's display of affection, much to Nami's chagrin.</p><p>As the representatives made their way to the reporting area, if you look closely enough, you'd notice there are a few students who are not paying attention to the festivities going on around them, and instead they are busy typing away on their phones, and murmurs of "betting pool is open now".</p><p>Emma turned around to look at Law as he kept his phone in his pocket. He met her eye on eye and grinned at her. "So, which pair are you betting on?"</p><p>"If I win, will you pay me everything in the pot?"</p><p>"What do you think?" Law answered, grinning ever so widely.</p><p>Emma allowed a little smile on her face. "In any case, I think Sanji and Nami will win this for us." Suddenly, her eyes widened a little bit and her mouth formed a little 'o', as if she came upon some grand revelation. "How about you create another betting pool to see if Sanji will have a nosebleed during the race later?"</p><p>Law chuckled. "If I did that, I'd end up losing money."</p><p>With the event starting soon, all the second-year students turned their attention to Area C, where the respective class reps are preparing themselves. Girls hopped on to their male partners. Students started to cheer for their classmates. The deafening noise of clappers rang in everyone's ears. Seconds later, the teacher sounded the horn and lo and behold, Sanji took the lead and sprinted ahead of everyone else while Nami had her arms wrapped around his neck, pressing herself against his back.</p><p>All too soon, Sanji crossed the finish line and the first runner-up only crossed the finish line a good eight seconds after Sanji. The class of 2-A erupted into loud cheers and applauses, congratulating the pair as they made their way back to where their class was seated at. Sanji, of course, came back with tissues stuck in his nostrils to help with his nosebleed.</p><p>Events went by one after the other, more betting pools opened and closed one after the other, and soon it was time for lunch break. Lunch was made by Killer, who surprisingly decided not to take part in any of the games this year and would rather be part of the support team.</p><p>"I swear it's because he's separated from Eustass Kid. It has to be," Koala insisted, while they were talking about it<em>(read: gossiping)</em>over lunch.</p><p>After lunch, the afternoon games started. The afternoon games are typically the main event of the Sports Festival every year. The teachers would plan different obstacle course relays every year, and they have never disappointed so far as they kept coming up with new challenges every year. This year was no different.</p><p>The relay requires ten people, some of the obstacles are meant to be done by one person, others obstacles meant to be a teamwork between two people. Some bugger in class 2-A had a bright idea to pair Law and Emma together and make them <em>'The Ultimate Bookworm Tag Team of 2-A'</em>.</p><p>And so, Law and Emma were standing at the start of their obstacle course, both of them bound together by a paper bracelet on their wrist. Law was standing slightly behind Emma, prepared to reach out his arms the moment Bartolomeo comes running with the baton while crying at the fact that he wasn't able to run the relay with Luffy and Zoro this year. Sure enough, Bartolomeo was sniffing and wiping his tears away as he ran towards Law and Emma. Law snatched the baton as soon as Bartolomeo was within range, and the both of them sprinted to the first obstacle: climbing over a huge ass wall.</p><p>Without any grace or ceremony, Law picked Emma up and threw her up on the wall, while being careful of the paper bracelets connecting them by the wrist. Emma had the lower half of her body hanging over the other side of the wall, waiting for Law to climb onto the wall so they could jump down together. Next they had to crawl under a tunnel, and it didn't help that the tunnel was very narrow. Law went in first, dragging Emma behind him, and not taking any care to make sure he did not kick her in the face. Thankfully, they had the advantage for the last obstacle, which required the students to grab a bell that was hanging from a tall pole. Emma climbed onto Law's shoulders and plucked the bell of the string with ease. They made their way to the finish line while laughing at their shorter counterparts, most of them struggling to even brush their fingers against the bell.</p><p>They made their way back to their class, and were welcomed by more cheers and congratulations, and many slaps on the back. Law dropped by 2-B for a short while to get some updates from Penguin about the bets for this game.</p><p>"You gave them a good run for their money, most people betted on 2-B or 2-D to win because of the people who participated in this game. Who would've thought that the shortest bunch of them would be stuck on the last obstacle…" Penguin remarked.</p><p>"Tactics, Penguin, tactics." Law chided, "Good players aren't good enough, you need to have a good line up to back it up."</p><p>"Will keep that in mind before I bet recklessly next year," Penguin laughed.</p><p>The last event was the finale of the Sports Festival, and it is the event that everyone looked forward to the most: Capture the Flag.</p><p>The playground? The whole school (except for certain restricted areas).</p><p>Teachers have planted flags all around the school, each colour representing each class, with a number on it to indicate which year the class belongs to. It was an all-out game, seniors could bully their juniors, and juniors could retaliate their seniors all they want. It was a game where the notion of 'mutual respect' is thrown out of everyone's dictionary. Alliances are formed. Betrayals everywhere. Promises to not steal an ally class' flags ignored.</p><p>Chaos ensues.</p><p>Of course, to make sure things don't go out of hand, teachers are stationed at every corner of the school to make sure no one gets injured.</p><p>Everyone was given fifteen minutes to strategise. Within that time, the second-year students miraculously decided to come together (<em>will they really?</em>) and wipe out the first-year and third-year classes first, before battling things out among themselves.</p><p>Emma leaned slightly towards Law. "How about you create a betting pool to see how long this alliance lasts?"</p><p>Law hummed in thought for a moment, shrugged, and started tapping away on his phone. "You keep coming up with these weird ideas today, am I turning you into a delinquent?" He mocked.</p><p>"It's just a suggestion, I'm not taking part in any of these bets." Emma smiled innocently.</p><p>At the sound of the horn, students set off immediately to steal as many flags as they could, and finding their own class flags so they could protect it. Some students stayed behind to protect their class' base. Emma was one of them, together with Killer and Shirahoshi.</p><p>"By the way, thanks for the bento lunch today, Killer. It was really good," Emma beamed at Killer.</p><p>Killer nodded in acknowledgement. "Thank you."</p><p>"How long did it take you to make all of the food? You must have woken up really early today," Shirahoshi quipped.</p><p>Killer shared he completed most of the preparations yesterday, and only had to wake up half an hour earlier than usual to heat up the food and pack everything. Soon enough the three of them were deep in conversation about cooking, exchanging cooking techniques and recipes they have learned so far, and the conversation turned into them critiquing celebrity chefs.</p><p>"… Jamie Oliver can't make fried rice for shit." Killer remarked.</p><p>Emma agreed wholeheartedly. "He should stick to making fish and chips."</p><p>"Don't be so mean… he's just trying to share his take on fried rice," Shirahoshi reasoned, as calm and gentle as ever.</p><p>Occasionally some people from their class dropped by to deposit some flags before running off to find more flags. To no one's surprise, they stole some second-years' flags despite the alliance they agreed on just twenty minutes ago. The game lasted for another ten more minutes, and the horn sounded again to signal the end of the last event. Students gathered back at the field, and from afar Emma could hear Luffy, Kid, and Bartolomeo arguing with one another about someone defecting from the alliance. She could faintly hear Kid screaming "I'll check all of your fucking boxes, and I swear I will fucking find my class' flags in one of you assholes' box!"</p><p>Killer shook his head and sighed.</p><p>"He won't scream his head off at us, will he?" Emma asked.</p><p>Killer sighed again. "As long as I'm around, we should be fine… I hope."</p><p>Kid's screams could be heard when he looked into 2-A's box.</p><p>—</p><p>After the award ceremony and cleaning up the field, students slowly made their way out of the school gates in groups, making dinner plans at nearby eateries. Law and Emma were invited to hang out with the rest for dinner, but turned them down as they had plans to get started on their history report.</p><p>"Oh, is that so?" Nami commented with a slight twinkle in her eye. "Perhaps another time then, see ya!" She waved goodbye to Emma, and walked out of the school gates with everyone else. Few minutes later, Law approached the school gate with Emma's bicycle in tow, and both of them headed for the train station.</p><p>They agreed to get dinner from the convenience store, then settle at Emma's house where they'll eat and do work at the same time. Both of them remained silent throughout the journey, and only spoke a few words too each other when they were buying dinner. When they arrived at Emma's apartment, she showed Law to the living room and recited the mandatory 'make yourself at home', and heated up their food in the microwave.</p><p>Not wanting to suffer from the heat and humidity any longer, Emma turned on the air-conditioner, made herself comfortable by the dining table. Both of them had their laptops out and wasted no time in starting their report.</p><p>For a while, the only sounds that filled the space was the rattling sounds of them typing away on their keyboards, the occasional sniffing, the gentle whirring of the air-conditioner, and the chairs creaking whenever either of them shifted on their chairs. After a while, Emma asked if she could turn on the television for 'some background noise'. Law simply answered her with: "This is your house, do whatever you want."</p><p>As the evening news played in the background, they continued typing away on their shared online document. Although, the atmosphere was noticeably less stagnant. Just a while after that, Emma asked about the development of the arts and religion during the Edo period, and both of them stopped writing their report for a while to do some research, which somehow ended up with them poking fun at how dumb the Shoguns and Daimyos were. Even after they resumed with their report, they kept up with the banter. Hours had passed, and neither of them noticed until Law looked up at the television and saw the time at the corner of the screen.</p><p>"I should get going, it's almost 10," Law announced. Emma responded with a yawn.</p><p>The fell silent again as Emma watched Law pack his belongings. Then, Law spoke up. "Do your parents work till late?"</p><p>Emma frowned a little and hesitated for a few moments, before finally replying. "My father works and stays at Shinjuku, I only get to see him once every few months."</p><p>Law waited, expecting her to continue. When she didn't, he let out a short <em>'oh'</em>.</p><p>They stared at each other for a few more seconds.</p><p>"…My mother passed away from lung cancer back when I was still in middle school."</p><p>Law suppressed the urge to let out another 'oh', and instead asked, "Did she smoke?"</p><p><em>A heck lot</em>, was Emma's reply. "She smoked so much that I made it a point to stay out of the house as much as I could to avoid second-hand smoke, plus the whole house stinks"<em>.</em></p><p>"That's…unfortunate," Law responded lamely. What was he supposed to say when a classmate reveals stuff like this? <em>My condolences?</em></p><p>As if sensing the awkwardness, Emma quickly downplayed her family problems, saying things likes she's never been that chummy with her parents, at least she has a roof over her head, and she's living off whatever money her mother had saved up so she doesn't have to worry about finances for a while, <em>and also—</em></p><p>Law patted her on the head once, which made Emma shut her mouth.</p><p>"It's alright." He said. '<em>You don't owe me an explanation,</em>' he added silently.</p><p>All too soon, Law withdrew his hand and walked towards the front door. Emma showed him out, they wished each other good night, and Emma closed the door once Law turned around the corner and disappeared from sight.</p><p>Emma placed a hand on her head, where Law's hand had been resting on just moments ago. She let out the tiniest of smiles, and whispered:</p><p>'T<em>hank you.</em>'</p><p>—</p><p>The day passed in a blur for Emma. From the moment she clocked in at work at 11.30am, the weekend crowd came in never-ending waves, leaving no time for any of the staff to catch a breather. The team of four part-timers, together with their manager, moved non-stop like clockwork, from prepping the drinks to stuffing sandwiches into the microwave oven, from cleaning tables after tables to punching in orders into the system until their fingers were sore. So it was not surprising when Emma did not notice Law entering the coffee shop.</p><p>By some stroke of luck, a group of middle school kids left just when Law entered, so he occupied that table immediately and waited for Emma to end work.</p><p>Meanwhile, he watched her as she moved around behind the counter. She was an absolute whirlwind of a disaster, bumping into colleagues and stacked boxes as she manoeuvred around the workstation, throwing spoons and measuring cups into the basin which created a melody of clings and clangs. It's almost as if she was training for Karate even at work.</p><p>About ten minutes later, the crowd seemed to slow a bit, and Emma went to the storeroom to clock out and retrieved her bag. When she came out, she got elbowed by her manager.</p><p>"Ya know 'im?" The manager asked and threw a quick glance at Law, who was staring straight at Emma now. "That boy been eyein' ya for a while now."</p><p>"Ah… He's a classmate, we're staying here to get some work done, if you don't mind?"</p><p>"Eh, sure, why not?" The manager shrugged and patted Emma on her shoulder. "Get some coffee at least, I'll give the both of ya a discount," she winked at Emma and nudged her towards Law. "Now off ya go and have a good time with ya date!"</p><p>Emma groaned and rubbed her neck as she walked towards Law. She plopped down on the chair opposite him and leaned back, her head tilted upwards as she stared at the ceiling.</p><p>"Busy day huh?" Law commented. Emma groaned again in response.</p><p>Law got up to get some black coffee for himself, an iced hazelnut latte and cheesecake for Emma. Law said she will put on weight. Emma said she hadn't ate anything today, and she deserved a treat.</p><p>After Law came back with the drinks, they got to work. Just like the day before, both of them worked in silence, only throwing some comments and ideas out once in a while. By the time it was close to 8pm, they were pretty much done with their work, and agreed that there wasn't much for them to tidy up anymore.</p><p>They decided to get some <em>oden</em> from the nearby convenience store for dinner. On the train, they stood side by side in the crowded carriage, and read news articles together on Law's phone. They were on the third article —something about local unrest in Peru over <em>trains—</em>when they had to alight.</p><p>The walk back home was just them discussing about the articles they've just read, ignoring the occasional drunken slurs and yelling from some people they walked past.</p><p>"Jesus, it's not even 10pm and they're all wasted already," Law scoffed.</p><p>Emma raised an eyebrow at that. "And what would you know about getting wasted? You're below the legal drinking age."</p><p>Law stared down at her and grinned, eyes reflecting some sort of unspoken mischief as he remained suspiciously silent.</p><p>"…Habitual alcohol drinker?" Emma guessed. Law simply shrugged and made a sudden turn towards the convenience store.</p><p>Law stood at the entrance for a few seconds, eyeing the entire store until he laid eyes on a tall, blonde man in a light pink collared shirt, with an embarrassingly attention-attracting knitted beanie with heart patterns all over it. Law raised an eyebrow and sighed.</p><p>Emma was standing behind him and peered over Law's shoulder to follow his line of sight. "Someone you know?"</p><p>"He's my guardian," Law replied and walked towards the man and stopped behind him, Emma following as well. Law stared at the man, Emma stared at Law, then the man. Then back at Law. Law coughed a little and said: "Cora-san", and immediately the man jumped and somehow tripped on his own foot when turning around.</p><p>"Is he… okay?" Emma asked worriedly.</p><p>"Nothing that a bit of aspirin can't help. He's had worse injuries." Law replied stoically. He reached out to the refrigerator where Cora-san had been looking at earlier, and grabbed 2 bottles of cheap beer and placed them in the basket on the floor next to where Cora-san was still groaning in pain and was just starting to get up. "God damnit, Law. How many times must I tell you to call me Rocinante?"</p><p>Law ignored him completely. "Emma, Cora-san." He gestured towards Rocinante. Emma gave a small bow and a soft <em>'hello'</em>.</p><p>Once Rosinante regained his composure and finally noticed Emma, he stared at her dumbstruck and blinked owlishly a few times, before he returned her greeting with an equally soft hello. Then he snapped towards Law. "You said you were going out to do a school project, not out on a date!"</p><p>Emma choked on her saliva.</p><p>"That's exactly what we did." Law replied.</p><p>"You meant the project, or the date?" Rocinante questioned.</p><p>"The project!" Emma wheezed.</p><p>—</p><p>After arriving at their apartment, Law made himself comfortable on the chair by the dining table and cracked open a beer bottle, gulping a few mouthfuls down.</p><p>"You know, I could get you thrown into the Boys' Home for underage drinking," Rocinante called from the kitchen as he was putting away rice crackers and cereal boxes into the shelves.</p><p>Law took another sip from the bottle and let out a satisfied sigh. "You have better things to do."</p><p>"Really? Like what?"</p><p>The younger man looked at the older one as if he's drunk. "Narcotics agent? Going undercover? Drugs bust?"</p><p>Rocinante clicked his tongue in annoyance. "…So that girl just now—Emma, she's the one who beat up those guys at the park?"</p><p>"Yep."</p><p>"Singlehandedly?"</p><p>"Mmhmm," Law took another swig.</p><p>"And you didn't help her," Rocinante remarked.</p><p>"Nope."</p><p>"That wasn't very nice of you, Law," the older man scolded.</p><p>Law rolled his eyes. "She handled them pretty well. Even if she couldn't, I was there."</p><p>Rocinante lit up a cigarette and blew the smoke in Law's direction (on purpose, of course). "And, pray tell, how did you plan to help her?"</p><p>Law said nothing and took out a pocket knife, swinging it around in front of Rosinante. That earned Law a disapproving look from his guardian. He pocketed the knife and continued: "Look, you took too long to locate a bunch of teenage junkies and their hideout, so I employed her help to speed things along. Case in point, it was effective, and you managed to catch them the next day."</p><p>Rosinante looked at Law in both shock and confusion. "How did you…?"</p><p>"You leave your case files everywhere." Law deadpanned.</p><p>Rosinante panicked visibly. "Oh god Law thosearehighlyconfidentialdocu— wait, so the anonymous tip that we got that time? That was YOU?"</p><p>Law waved lazily. "Hello."</p><p>Rosinante facepalmed himself, and let out a tired sigh. "That was very dangerous, Law. You know very well what kind of people I deal with and yet, you got yourself and that sweet girl involved!" Rosinante hissed, feeling the slightest bit of anger bubbling up. "Please don't do that again," he pleaded.</p><p>"Getting Emma involved?"</p><p>"And yourself," Rosinante added.</p><p>"Can't promise I won't do it again in the future,"</p><p>Rosinante looked at Law tiredly, silently begging him to just listen to him for once. After a few seconds, Law sighed. "Fine."</p><p>"Thank you."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I had to include Condoriano, it's just too funny. In fact, I hope to bring him back in future chapters.<br/>The books mentioned in this chapter:<br/>Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder: It's an introduction on the history of philosophy, mainly some famous philosophers, and their works.<br/>Underground by Haruki Murakami: The author interviewed the victims, and cult members of Aum Shinrikyo who were involved in the Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995. He compiled their testimonies in this book.</p><p>I’ve decided to come back to writing fanfics! Previously I had written 2 OP fics, both were also LawxOC. But that was many years ago, when I was 15? I re-read my work a few months back and golly, it was trash. I had to delete it. I’m 21 now, and I still love Law a lot, he deserves all the love in the world. All the hugs. All the wholesomeness.  </p><p>I’ve got a few inspirations for this fic. One of it is FRUITPUNCHED by razbliuto, you can read their work here on fanfic.net, it’s also a high school AU. Also, please read Methyl Nitrate Pineapples, written by the same author.</p><p>My other inspiration is Durarara!!, there’s an anime series of it and I highly recommend watching it. To summarise, the show is about high school gangsters, urban myths, flying vending machines, and Russian assassins. So much chaotic energy.</p><p>All the chaos. All the havoc. I love it, and I hope you love it too.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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